From Lingering to Liberation: Finding the Way Out of Codependency
You’re sitting across from someone you care deeply about, and there it is a suffocating feeling that you can’t quite shake off. You want to stand up for yourself, to set boundaries — but you can’t. Instead, you linger a bit too long.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, lingering is to be slow in parting or in quitting something.
My entire life has been more about lingering than leaving. A feeling wrapped up in an invisible force that bound me to a cycle of constant approval and fear of abandonment.
What in the world was happening? Three words: the codependency trap. It’s a real thing, and you’re not the only one who’s experienced it.
I’ve been thinking about the word, linger, due to my weekly interactions with my 70-to-80 year old elders. Every Thursday morning, I am fortunate enough to have enlightening conversations over breakfast with some of the sassiest and sharpest elders I have met on my travels. I am also the second youngest in attendance besides Albert’s caregiver, who is a young twenty-three year old.
Or it could be that I’ve been listening to the Cranberry’s song, Linger, for days on end which reminds me…
